Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, DUMFRIES, by ROBERT FERGUSSON


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DUMFRIES, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: The gods sure in some canny hour / to bonny nith hae taen a tour
Last Line: With frequent brimmer.
Alternate Author Name(s): Ferguson, Robert
Subject(s): Churchill, Charles (1731-1764); Drinks & Drinking; Towns; Wine


The gods sure in some canny hour
To bonny Nith hae taen a tour,
Whare bonny blinks the caller flow'r
Beside the stream,
And sportive there hae shawn their pow'r
In fairy dream.

Had Kirkhill here but kent the gate,
The beauties on Dumfries that wait,
He'd never turn'd his canker'd pate
Of satire keen,
Whan ilka thing's sae trig and feat,
To cheer the een.

I ken the stirrah loo'd fu weel
Amang the drinking louns to reel,
An claret wine or porter sweel,
Whilk he could get,
After a shank o' beer he'd peel,
His craig to wet.

Marshall's an' Bushby's then had fund
Some kitchen gude, to lay the grund,
And Cheshire mites had helped to hund
And fley awa
The heart-scad an' a scud o' wind
Frae stamack raw.

Had Horace liv'd, that pleasant sinner,
That loo'd gude wine to synd his dinner,
His muse tho' dowf, the deil be in her,
She'd lous'd her tongue,
The drink could round Parnassus rin her
In blythest sang.

Nae mair he'd sung to auld Maecenas,
The blinking een o' bonny Venus,
His leave o' them he'd taen at anis
For claret here,
Which Jove and a' his gods still rain us
Frae year to year.

O Jove, man, gie's some orra pence,
Mair siller, an' a wie mair sense,
I'd bigg to you a rural spence,
An' bide a' simmer,
An' cald frae saul and body fence
With frequent brimmer.





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